To give her her dues Carter didn't immediately bite Percival's head off for jumping to conclusions – the exact reaction she would have had if it'd been me. Percival seemed reasonably uninterested in the whole ordeal however and it was rapidly driving Carter up the wall. I sat leaning forward on the table trying to take notes slightly faster than I could write. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Carter trying not to outwardly judge my posture – my spine was almost at a right angle and it was beginning to hurt.
"No one needs to over think every death they see," I tuned back in as Percival shut the file and Carter exhaled through her teeth vehemently.
"Someone has to otherwise no one will know how they died," she replied remarkably calmly.
"Knowing how a person died doesn't bring them back. It doesn't really help anyone in the end it's just a waste of time." Percival stood up and tucked his chair back under the desk. "When you inevitably want to go investigate you'll have to let me know as it's currently under the Yard's control." He turned his back on us, straightened his jacket and walked out of the door leaving us in a highly grating silence.
"Doesn't help anyone? Doesn't help anyone! That is the most apathetic, lazy, self absorbed thing I've ever heard." Carter was spitting and a bit of salvia hit my nose, I wiped it off and waited for the onslaught of irritance to pass. "I bet you – that man has never helped anyone in his life – god the Yard is so far in the gutter it's unsalvageable."
"Alright Carter we get it," I held up my hands. "The Yard is useless we were never in doubt of that." I really didn't want to ask the obvious because I was definitively certain that she had got there first. "It's all the same markings as the first guy, you reckon it's the same person?"
Carter shrugged in her non-committal way. "More likely to be a copy-cat, two deaths this close together by the same killer? It would be like begging to be caught."
I nodded and let the dismissal of my question slide.
"We should go check it out actually – see if there's anything left at the scene to help expand on what we already know." I flipped my notebook shut and stuck it back into my jacket pocket.
"Actually I can't," Carter looked embarrassed for the first time since I'd known her. The self-consciousness ate up the height and superiority she usually held over me. "I have to go to lunch with my parents today."
I laughed, hard. "The best detective in London is skipping case work for a quick lunch with her family? Nice excuse, try again." I was still chuckling when she glared at me and I stopped.
"Really Dawson, I have to go otherwise they'll get suspicious and then they'll start asking questions and it'll all become rather unhelpful."
"Suspicious? You're doing your job Carter, they can hardly complain about that – it's not your fault some blokes gone and got himself hung is it?"
"Eddie," the switch to my first name always caught me off guard. "What do you think it is they think I do as a job?"
I paused for a moment non-plussed. "Solve crimes?" I said a little bit of uncertainty lacing my tone. I knew they didn't know she was a detective but that was only because it was a very hands on role. "Work in the police right?"
"They don't think I have a job Dawson," Irene was looking at me now with a level of intensity lacking even when she was in her deepest reals of thought. "They think I live at home in a flat that they own and that I sew or read or teach myself the piano forte I can only assume."
"Nothing wrong with the piano forte," I said quickly. It wasn't the brightest comment I'd ever made.
She scowled at me and put on her jacket without saying a word for a few moments.
"Carter I'm sorry," I was still trying to juggle with the revelation that the best detective in Scotland Yard hid their career from their family. "Why not tell them? They'd be so impressed I bet. I mean I would be if I'd raised someone as smart as you."
A small smile drifted across her face for a second and then melted away back into the same thin lipped grimace. "You and I, we're not the same," she said slowly. I could tell that for once she was choosing her words carefully. "Your family sent you out into the world with the skills to be able to take care of yourself, you have your job and you're good at it and they're proud of you for that. You make money, enough to survive on anyway, you're fulfilling their standards." She paused and then continued with a thin vein of distaste running through her tone. "My family wanted me to be able to sing, and when I couldn't do that they wanted me to act, and when I couldn't do that…" she took a very quiet breath. "When I couldn't do that they just wanted me to sit still and stay quiet - like an ornament or a doll."
She shook her head and then her whole face shifted and she smiled in a slightly forced way.
"You are nothing like my family Dawson."
We stood in silence for a moment facing each other. "Well," I said finally, "at least let me walk you to wherever you're having lunch on my way to the paper presses."
"I'm perfectly capable of walking a couple of blocks by myself thank you Dawson. I'm going to lunch not into a crime den."
"From what you just described I think I'd rather take the crime den," I grinned. "Besides, I wasn't asking to keep you safe; I was asking for your company."
She glanced down at me, the height advantage and the confidence reinstated, like she had just put on the costume of a completely different person to the one I'd seen moments prior.
"Alright then, thank you Eddie," she held the door open for me and I hurried after her through it.
"No problem Carter."
We walked along the narrow thoroughfare towards St James' Park where the streets opened up and the smells and sounds of the lake filled our senses. It was lightly raining but Carter didn't seem to mind and for once it wasn't bothering me much. She walked with her hands in her pockets of her coat but her hat was off and her jaw was clean from coal dust. Even without them she held an aura of power swirling about her like her coat around her ankles. It made me wonder why she bothered with them at all. We continued on in the rain as carriages rattled past us on the cobblestones and we exited the park railings onto the main road towards the palace.
"Where are we going?" I said as instead of turning away we continued down the road leading to the palace. I was suddenly envisaging the horror of having to drop Carter off at the steps of Buckingham itself in a coat that could have been replaced a year ago and work trousers.
"Ruben's" she replied and then laughed slightly at my aghast expression. "It's a hotel near the palace – don't worry you don't need to pull that face."
I grinned back realising I'd visually reacted to hearing the name of The Ruben's it was an incredibly fancy hotel and I couldn't even imagine the amount of money one would have to have to just go for lunch there. I thought about my skylight that leaked and my front door that didn't fit in its hinges properly. I felt out of place all of a sudden – like the world had been pulled out from under my feet and a whole different one had been rolled out like a carpet in front of me. When I glanced over at Carter she seemed to somehow adapt perfectly to this new setting. Maybe that was her real talent, blending in, she seemed just as right with this backdrop as she did sitting in Scotland Yard or leaning over the table at my little flat. As if she sensed my unease she slowed her stride a little to allow me to keep up with her easier and turned to give me a reassuring smile.
"You don't have to take me all the way to the door," she said raising her eyebrows. As much as I did enjoy running away from things that made me uncomfortable I knew deep down she was feeling the same way I did – just hiding it better. I shook my head.
"Nah, we've walked this far in the rain, no harm getting a little wetter, plus I can loop back easily from here."
She smiled and we walked on chattering about the case and the inexcusable rudeness of the man we'd met at the Yard. The remainder of the walk – a brief fifteen minutes round the edge of the place flew by. We reached the steps of the hotel and Carter turned round to me and held out her hand - I shook it.
"Thank you for the company Dawson."
"Anytime Carter."
I waited until she was inside and the great golden doors had slammed behind her before turning back to look out into the rain. It was only lightly tapping on the cobblestones and the freshness in the air was palpable. I inhaled deeply and caught a smell I wasn't expecting. I glanced around for a dog but saw none in my immediate field of vision.
"Do you want me to flag you a cab sir?" asked the doorman as I went to leave.
I shook my head clearing the distant scent of wet dog from my nostrils. "No it's alright mate, I think I'll walk."